Alternatives

Duo calmly slid his ID card through the device before him. He sighed as the machine blinked twice and greeted him in a female synthetic voice.

"Hello Mr. Maxwell, please proceed." The door slid easily through the metal floor, making a slight click as it locked in its place, waiting for the young, purple-eyed Lieutenant to pass.

             "Hello, Duo!" A gloved hand patted him on the shoulder. At once, the American fifteen-year-old recognized the voice. "Hello, Zechs," he calmly replied to his superior and best friend Zechs Marquise.

"How are you and Hilde doing?" Zechs asked, scratching his head, his long blond hair flowing loose and long down his back. Duo breathed in sharply, heart-shaped face pasted with an expression of dismay.

"I dunno what you're talking about!" he cried, walking away from the colonel. "Sure ya do! I saw you talking to her and then... smooch!" Zechs grinned as Duo spun around.

"That's not true!" he protested. "Oh, yeah it is... and I'm gonna be a gossip! HA!" Zechs proudly walked away from his best friend, who was staring at the wall, seemingly paralyzed with fear.

Duo pivoted on his heel and shook his fist at Zechs’ departing figure.

“Ooh, that guy!” he muttered to himself. A slow, evil grin which justified his nickname among the Specials forces-Shinigami- spread across his face. “A little birdie told me a VERY interesting story concerning a certain lieutenant Noin and a certain colonel...”

Zechs froze in his tracks down the hall. “You wouldn¹t dare. I¹m the gossip, not you!” he cried. Duo smirked at him. “There¹s a first time for anything.”

Zechs jogged up to him. “Hey, how¹d you find out, anyway?” he demanded.

Duo grinned. “So, you mean it’s true?” Zechs groaned as he realized he just confirmed the accusation. Duo continued, “Sorry, sir, a true gossip NEVER reveals his secrets!” Zechs pounded his head against the wall in frustration, wondering how Duo had turned the tables on him yet again.

Duo turned as he entered the lift and called, “And Zechs, you should know better than to let a security expert have free rein in your room...even if she is your sister.” The lift doors clicked shut. Zechs stared in disbelief at the now-featureless wall as Duo¹s words sank into his brain. Finally: “RELENAAAAAA!”

****

The MS door popped open and its young pilot leapt down, landing with his knees bent, agile as a cat.

“Great work, Heero!” called Trowa down to his friend, who was commonly known as Heero Yuy, since word leaked out that the pilot of the new special ‘Gundam mobile suit’ would be codenamed Heero Yuy. And since he was the best pilot in the Colonial forces... “Your test scores were off the chart...even for you!” Trowa continued.

Heero gave Trowa a nod. Removing his helmet, he looked up at his best friend and teased, “You mean like yours were earlier today?”

Trowa laughed. Though he was primarily known as an explosives expert, Trowa was the best pilot in the Colonial forces...after Heero, of course. Those two were slated to be the pilots of the Gundams, which were Mobile Suits so far advanced over the earlier models that outside HQ they were the stuff of dreams. Doctors J and H were racing with their former counterparts, Doctors I and G who were now with the Specials, to complete the Gundams.

Ten minutes later, the boys were washed and dressed casually and heading to the mess hall. They walked next to each other in comfortable silence. Heero glanced at the boy walking next to him out of the corner of his eye. Trowa was about three inches taller than Heero’s own five-foot-three, with brown hair lighter than Heero’s dark crown. One of his dark green eyes was always hidden beneath a curtain of hair. That was his distinguishing feature. Heero’s was a red bandanna that was supposed to keep his extremely spiky hair out of his Prussian blue eyes but didn¹t.

Trowa was Heero's best friend and a real cool guy to have around, but he never talked much about his past. Heero knew Trowa had been raised in the circus, explaining his phenomenal acrobatic ability and empathy for animals among other talents, but some dark event had led to his fleeing into the Colonial rebel forces.

Heero didn't know if Trowa was an orphan or had his parents alive, how many siblings he had... Trowa had once mentioned that he¹d abandoned his real name and adopted the one of a man he'd been forced to kill, but other than that he was very reluctant to talk about his past, despite his tendency to talk too much about anything else.

Heero knew what Trowa meant. He himself hated talking about his past; not that it mattered, since almost everyone in the Rebel forces (very Star Wars-esque, no?) knew his story:

For most of his life, he’d been known as AJ-Adin, Jr.- and he lived up to it. He was the spitting image of his father, the assassin-turned-most-brilliant-general-in-the-Federation Adin Lowe. He was raised to be his spitting image, too. He could move as noiselessly as a shadow if he wanted, shoot a coin off a table without singeing the finish from a hundred paces, take a knife in the gut and not wince-just like his father trained him to. He had an assassin’s skills but could salute and march and obey orders as well as any parade-show soldier.

He had to. If he slipped up, his father would have beaten him within an inch of his life. And Heero had the scars to prove it. He hated his life; he hated the Earth Federation. It was no wonder that he¹d run away and enlisted in the Colonial forces just as soon as he could: about two years ago.

His reputation as a ‘perfect soldier’ had quickly grown. No one questioned his loyalty, so great and seething was his hatred of his father and the other higher-ups in the Federation who’d made him what he was.

When Trowa had enlisted six months after Heero's arrival, the Colony

Command quickly took notice of his skills and talents. Before long, the two were assigned each other as partners, since they both had reputations of thorough, swift efficiency. Any mission they assigned, they completed. No questions asked.

And sure enough, the two of them had become fast friends. They’d saved each other so many times that a bond between the two had sprung up, closer than brothers.

Heero was jolted out of his thoughts when he walked right past the door to the mess hall and Trowa called back to him: “Hey Heero! What’s with you? The door’s this-a-way!” Heero spun around and grinned sheepishly. Laughing, the two boys entered the big room together.

****

Relena Marquise ran her fingers through her short dark blond hair and blew the feathery bangs out of her sky-blue eyes. She squinted at the computer screen for a few more seconds, then quickly executed several quick keystrokes. With an obliging beep, the computer signaled that the code was broken.

“Ha!” Relena barked, spinning her chair around to face her friends.

“What¹s my time, then, Duo?”

Duo glanced at his black stopwatch. “Twenty minutes and eighteen point two seconds,” he recited, grinning sheepishly at the girls. Relena hooted in triumph. “Ha, less than twenty one minutes! So, oniisan, I thought this was an ‘unbreakable’ Specials code?” she taunted, smirking at her brother.

Relena Marquise was, despite her young age, one of the best security experts in the field. Or as Relena put it, ‘an ANTI-security expert’. She had a knack for figuring out the weaknesses in any security system, and for breaking into any ‘secure’ computers to gain the blueprints for aforementioned systems.

Zechs, Duo and Hilde were all talented MS pilots, the best in the Specials forces. Zechs and Duo especially had ‘the touch’; they were so good, they were expected to be the pilots for the new ‘gundam’ mobile suits.

Noin was a good MS pilot, too, but she used her talents to teach.

Anyway, to return to the story, Zechs had bet that his younger sister couldn’t break the codes on the heavily encrypted disk containing the plans for the new Gundam suits. At least without tearing her hair out.

Duo had trusted his superior’s judgment so much he’d bet his girlfriend twenty credits that she WOULDN’T be able to break the code. Hilde had accepted the bet, especially since Relena was her best friend and she¹d stick up like anything for her.

“Pay up, Duo! You lost,” exulted Hilde. Duo grimaced and reached into his pocket, withdrawing a crumpled handful of credit notes.

Relena smirked one last time at her head-scratching brother and turned her attention to the diagrams spinning on her screen. “Whoa,” she breathed. "These are the plans?" She whistled softly while her friends crowded around and looked at the screen. Duo predicted, “Those suits are going to be majorly...”

***

“AWESOME!” yelled Trowa, looking up at his new Gundam. Thickly armored and powerful looking, the orange-red-and-white Gundam had a vast arsenal of guns, missile launcher and gatling guns, a powerful engine and two hidden knives made of Gundanium alloy. “That is Heavyarms,” Dr. H told Trowa, justifiably proud of his creation.

Heero was busy listening to Dr. J as he lectured the young pilot on his Gundam’s statistics. “Wing Zero is extremely versatile; it fights well in the air or land. It has a jet fighter mode, can go at high speeds and is agile and maneuverable. Its main weapons are a beam saber and a beam cannon, plus some machine guns...” Heero gradually tuned Dr. J out.

His eyes kept glancing at the MS, sleek and shining white. It stood like a divine warrior from the heavens, its empty eyes almost glowing.

****

Duo grinned as Hilde and Relena praised the plans. ³You know, girls, they¹re only plans...² said Zechs. The two girls ignored him because of their high pitched ‘ooh's’ and ‘aah's’.

Duo gave his bud a slap on the back. “They¹re bee-yoo-tiful. I especially like mine.” His face gleamed with delight as the plans for the Gundam called Deathscythe appeared.

“You're going to pilot that thing? It’s kinda...scary,” Hilde said, staring at the Gundam which looked a little like the Grim Reaper. “It’s cool, Hilde! Can¹t you see its’ essence?” Hilde just looked blank.  “Huh?”

Duo clarified: “It rules!”

“Uh... where’s mine?” Zechs inquired as he squirmed to get a look at the Gundam. Relena glanced at her brother and grinned. “This is your Gundam, Zechs.” The screen switched to an image of a tall white Mobile Suit, with a crest on its gray and white head resembling the helmet of a ancient Roman gladiator.

“Hey, hey, hey! I was looking at MY Gundam!” protested Duo.

Zechs stared at the computer screen, trying to memorize the white Gundam. “Wow, is that mine?” he said, glancing at his co-workers one by one. Relena nodded with a proud smile on her face, Hilde made a thumbs-up sign and Duo... Duo glanced at the computer screen and cried, “Hurrah! We're gonna kick some rebel ass!”

Relena scrolled down some more...then started giggling. “What’s so funny?” asked Zechs. Relena, unable to speak through her laughs, pointed to where the Gundam¹s name was: Tallgeese.

“TALLGEESE?!” roared Zechs, outraged. “What kind of a name is Tallgeese? Does it LOOK like a TALLGEESE to you? It doesn;t even resemble a fowl in any way, shape or size!”

Duo and Hilde joined in Relena¹s laughter. “I’m glad my Gundam's name’s cool!” gloated Duo. Zechs sulked.

Zechs let Duo see his Gundam one last time before they had to log off in order not to be late for morning reveille.

*****

Duo and Zechs were escorted to their MS's two days after the incident. Duo stared at his Gundam and smiled proudly. The scientist beside him pushed up his glasses and calmly read the paper he was holding. “Gundam Deathscythe; unable to be seen on radar, weapon is thermal scythe. Also has a drill-like projectile that can be shot at opponents one at a time.  Made out of Gundanium alloy.” The scientist stopped to let Duo drool and rant on about how beautiful his Gundam is.

Zechs, on the other hand, was not so pleased with his Gundam.

“Tallgeese...” he muttered under his breath. “Excuse me?” Doctor I asked the platinum-blond man beside him. “Nothing, just get on with the report,” Zechs said flatly. The scientist held the clipboard in front of him, “Gundam Tallgeese, fast and powerful, it has a weapon called the Mega Cannon, and a beam saber sort of similar to Duo’s scythe.”

“Pretty original, eh?” Zechs commented. The scientist cleared his throat and continued, “Made out of titanium alloy.”

Although he still didn¹t like the name of his Gundam, he was impressed by the white MS standing in front of him. In spite of his bad mood he said, “Hello, Tallgeese.” And he reached up and patted the Mobile Suit.

******

KA-BOOOOOOM! The green-brown Aries suit exploded as Heavyarms’ missiles found their mark. Chest heaving with his deep, shuddery breaths, Trowa Barton sat up straighter in the cockpit and scanned his sensors. He picked up Heero¹s Wing Zero on his screen just in time to watch a beam saber impale another Aries.

“That's the last of ‘em,” Trowa told Heero on the comm. “Mission accomplished.”

Heero grinned at Trowa’s image on his commscreen. Jerking his thumb in the general direction of the base, he offered, “Want to race?”

Trowa, used to accepting any challenge that came his way, blurted out, “Sure thing!” He realized his mistake and slammed the heel of his palm against his forehead as Heero¹s grin grew even wider.

“Ja ne!” Heero said cheerfully. Trowa watched sullenly as Wing Zero transformed into a jet and shot away to the base, probably breaking the sound barrier. Then he lifted his shoulders in a shrug (Heavyarms mimics his movement, too! =) and began to trudge back to base.

He arrived in around an hour. As he hopped down from his mecha and let the maintenance people bundle Heavyarms off, he cast his green eyes about for his best friend. He soon spotted Heero’s red bandanna blazing against his dark hair and jogged up to him. 

“Hey Heero!” he yelled. “Sorry I¹m so late, but we can’t all have grotesquely fast Gundams...” Trowa’s friendly banter trailed off as he saw the serious expression on Heero’s face. Trowa grabbed his arm and demanded, “What’s the matter, Heero?”

In a terse voice, Heero quickly explained: “When I came, I decided to fool around with my computer a bit. An item on the news server caught my eye, then I started to find connected articles...followed the trail all the way to a Federation Class Blue database.” Trowa was a bit startled. He knew Heero was a good hacker, but a CLASS BLUE computer system? Heero continued:

“The Federation has their Gundams completed, too. The Specials pilots chosen have been using their Gundams for two weeks already and giving our people a beating.”

Trowa breathed in sharply in dismay. He walked along the corridor in thoughtful silence. He glanced sidelong at Heero’s face. “I know that look.” He smiled in grim anticipation. “So, when¹re we going to meet them?” Heero returned the smile. “Soon, buddy. Very soon.”

*****

“Die, rebel scum! MwaHAHAHAHAHAhaaa!” cackled Duo insanely as his thermal scythe ripped through the rebel Colonial MS. Off to one side, fighting a squad of MS in Tallgeese-and winning- Zechs asked, “Duo, HOW do you laugh like that?”

Hilde, flying back-up and not really doing anything since the two

Gundams were utterly annihilating their enemies, said boredly, “He watched a Star Wars marathon last night and he's been practicing the laugh of Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo. That answer your question, Zechs?”

Zechs sweatdropped. “I DO NOT need to know more, I DO NOT need to think about it...” he chanted to himself.

An image blinked on in his commscreen. It was a rebel pilot, who looked straight into Zechs’ eyes and proclaimed, “I am going to kill you. For the freedom of my home.”

His voice didn’t ring stridently and dramatically, nor was his face twisted in the expression of righteous anger that Zechs had come to expect when dealing with announcements like this; no, it was completely unimpressive and forgettable, considering the way he said it. He might as well have said, “I’m a Mac user.”

Zechs killed him, of course. And in that same, utterly boring tone of voice, the rebel said: “You killed me. But someone very much like me is going to come along, and he’ll be all the things I’m not. He¹ll defeat you, for the freedom of my home. He’ll be...”

And the man, still preternaturally serious but calm, was enveloped in a raging fireball. And Zechs cast his words out of his memory.

“Oi, Zechs!” Duo’s face popped up on screen just where the boring rebel had been. “That's the last one!” he reported. “Can we go home now?”

As ranking officer, Zechs had to be the one to order the mission’s objectives finished and allow them to return to base. He was just about to do so when...

“Colonel!” yelled Hilde. “Two mobile suits coming this way...fast! They¹re configured different from an Aries or a Taurus...” her voice trailed off. “Oh no... they're like...”

“WHAT are they like?” demanded Zechs. Hilde didn’t need to answer, for at that moment the Mobile Suits arrived.

A large red-white-and-blue jet, built rather like a mechanical eagle, swooped out from the blue noonday sky. Its ‘talons’ were clenched around a large, heavily-armored mecha, who was dropped right in the midst of the battle field.

It landed, creating a small crater. The eagle pulled up into the sky and dove down again, rapidly reconfiguring so a mecha with a longer-limbed build than its counterpart landed next to the first one. 

“Run a scan!” he snapped to both his subordinates. “Running, sir,” Hilde replied. “Gundanium alloy; bears a striking resemblance to Dr. H and Dr. I’s blueprints...”

Zechs sucked in his breath. The other Gundams! Here for the duel that Zechs had always known would come, ever since he received his Tallgeese...but which he tried to avoid thinking about.

An image flickered on in the corner of Zechs’ screen. A boy with a red bandanna around his spiky brown hair stared at Zechs. After a moment of pregnant silence, the boy spoke. “Zechs Marquise, colonel in the Specials forces. I should have guessed they’d pick you. So then...” He turned his head slightly to one side. “You must be Lieutenant Duo Maxwell piloting the other Gundam.”

Zechs could imagine Duo's surprised expression on the unnamed boy’s screen. How had he identified them with just a quick glance at their faces?

More disturbingly, why couldn¹t he identify HIM? A pilot of high enough caliber to be entrusted a Gundam should have shown up in the Intelligence files somewhere, but Zechs couldn't remember that face. And Zechs had a photographic memory, as did Duo.

He keyed a private link to his second-in-command. “Duo! Have you seen that face before?”

Duo shook his head in the negative. “Nah-uh. And where¹s the pilot of the other one? This image is linked back to the white Gundam.”

Another image blinked on in Zechs' screen. Now there were three images filling Zechs’ commscreen: Duo and the unnamed boys.

The new one had a pale, sharp-featured face, with light brown hair obscuring one dark green eye. “You can call me Trowa Barton,” offered the boy. A smirk curved his mouth. “Well, while you’re still alive to call anyone anything.”

Duo bristled angrily. “Wanna back that up, tough guy?” he yelled at Trowa. Trowa shot back: “Anytime, braid-boy!” The two Gundams, black and orange, started to move into combat position, trading insults and threats at a furious rate. The other boy stared unblinkingly at Zechs. “Well, I guess that leaves us to fight.”

“Wait!” said Zechs. “What’s your name? I'm not going to fight someone whose name I don’t know.” The boy¹s lips twitched, just slightly. Zechs had the feeling that was as close to a smile as he would probably get.

“My assigned codename is Heero Yuy,” the boy told him. Zechs’s sky blue eyes narrowed as he began to move his Gundam. He didn¹t miss the significance of the name, and he was sure the boy knew it.

*******

Duo jerked the joystick forward to make the Gundam Deathscythe slide to the right, out of the way of the speeding missiles. "That all you can do, spiky?" Duo taunted the colonial pilot. "Watch out for the bullets, loud mouth!" Trowa snapped as his breastplate opened to reveal some gatling guns.

“Maybe this will shut you up!” He loosed a barrage of missiles and bullets.

“YAAAH!” yelled Duo. Only his quick reflexes saved him. Gulping in some oxygen, he turned wide eyes onto the orange Gundam that had nearly roasted Deathscythe. He noticed that its gatling gun had run out of ammo. The orange Gundam threw the guns away, revealing a knife that could withstand the thermal blades of the other Gundams. It charged at Duo, only to miss giving the killer blow.  Trowa could only watch as Duo¹s brilliant green scythe sprang up to claim its victim.

****

Heero had never fought a person who was just as good a pilot as he was. Zechs Marquise was awesome as he attacked the younger Gundam pilot, who had barely dodged Tallgeese's thermal blade. Under the layer of titanium alloy which was Tallgeese, Zechs grinned; ‘This will be a real good fight...’ he thought as he charged for his colonial forces counterpart. Wing Zero activated its jets and vaulted over the the white Gundam charging at it.

Heero racked his mind for a strategy, and finally got one; Wing Zero pulled out its thermal blade and held it before its abdomen part defensively. As soon as Zechs saw this, he stopped his charging procedure and put on an attacking stance. His jet boosters softened their noise, a signal that they were being set on low-power.

Now it was a sudden death situation. It was of equal odds and no one could estimate one another¹s skills. Just the way Heero liked it.

***

Trowa sprang out of the way just in time to see the scythe brush against his Gundam’s arm. It tore open a gash which sparked angrily.

“URGH! You’ll pay for that!” Trowa cried as he fired more rounds of bullets. Duo grinned as he easily dodged the bullets which were shot from Heavyarms’ guns.

Duo spoke to the former circus star, “Ready to die?” Deathscythe propelled itself towards the other Gundam who was again firing rounds of bullets at the dodging Deathscythe.

Duo smirked, he knew that this procedure would tire the other pilot down. Insulting and taunting had their effects in pilots who didn’t know how to control their anger and pride. Zechs had learned how to block emotions out because of the many mock battles with Duo.

‘This guy has yet to learn how to defeat Duo Maxwell...’ he thought as he swung his scythe towards the vulnerable portion of Heavyarms’ humanoid figure--- it’s head.

***

to be continued...